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Cats crisp in preparation for UT

Missouri guard Phil (Flip) Pressey, left, is pressured by Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez during the first half Saturday in Manhattan.

Kansas State guard Jeremy Jones (24) goes up for a shot over Oklahoma's T.J. Franklin, left, during Saturday'sl game in Norman, Okla.

MANHATTAN — Kansas State’s substitution pattern might seem like an unbreakable code to the outside world, but the players involved have figured out the cipher by now.

“You kind of know the lineup from practice,” guard Jeremy Jones said. “If you have a good practice and you do what Frank wants, you’re going to play a lot of minutes. If you struggle in practice, it’s a 50-50 chance.”

Jones, a reserve guard, had a feeling he was in line for major minutes Saturday against Oklahoma, presumably because he saw how many of his teammates were running the stairs of Bramlage Coliseum during practice.

No such conditioning was required this week, which probably bodes well for Wednesday’s game against Texas.

“We haven’t had anybody on the stairs for two days,” coach Frank Martin said.

That would suggest K-State will have its full roster available against the Longhorns, including freshman point guard Angel Rodriguez, who didn’t play against OU.

Martin has been pleased with the response since Saturday’s upset loss in Norman, which dropped the Wildcats to 1-3 in Big 12 play.

“(Tuesday’s) practice was the best practice we’ve had since before Christmas sometime,” he said.

K-State’s slow start prompted comparisons to last season, when the Wildcats started 2-5 in conference play amid internal strife.

The records are similar, but K-State’s recent turbulence is only a blip in comparison, Martin said.

“Last year’s team had to reinvent itself,” he said. “This year’s team doesn’t have to reinvent itself. We just have to grasp reality and remember who we were when the season started.”

That means getting back to the defensive principles for which K-State is known. The Wildcats rank last in the Big 12 in field goal-percentage defense through four conference games after allowing opponents to shoot 36.7 percent in nonconference play.

“Perimeter defense is where it starts,” Martin said, “and our perimeter defense has not been good in a while.”

That defense will be tested Wednesday by Texas guard J’Covan Brown, the Big 12’s leading scorer at 19.1 points per game.

Brown, a junior, has emerged on an otherwise untested Texas team and is coming off a 34-point performance in a loss at Missouri.

“J’Covan was like all other good players in good programs — he was playing behind pros,” Martin said. “He’s been competing with those guys, and at times he was good enough to take over games with those guys as his teammates.

“This year, the ball is in his hands, and it’s his team.”

Like K-State, Texas is experiencing the rollercoaster of depending on freshmen. The Longhorns start three of them, which explains the ups and downs they’ve had during a 12-5 start.

“We tried to point out to them how many times we come down the floor and don’t execute what we practice,” coach Rick Barnes said. “That’s what we keep talking about, the details, until we can understand that when you go in a game, you have a job to do.”

Martin is trying to impart the same lesson, and the results have been favorable since Saturday’s loss.

“What’s going to determine who you are is how you handle adversity,” Martin said. “It’s not how you handle the parade. We dealt with a little adversity, and I like the way we’ve reacted.”

GREENAWALT HELPS EXPEDITE HEALING PROCESS FOR CATS’ JONES

Kansas State junior transfer Jeremy Jones practiced Tuesday after missing Monday’s practice to rest his sprained right ankle. The injury, which occurred late in the first half of Saturday’s game against Oklahoma, forced Jones to spend most of the second half on the bench.

“(Monday) he was hobbled,” K-State coach Frank Martin said. “We put him on the side and said, ‘If you can’t go, then you don’t need to waste your time.’ We put him with (strength coach) Scott Greenawalt on the sideline, and suddenly that ankle felt a heck of a lot better.”

■ Martin said guard Omari Lawrence will be in uniform for Wednesday’s game after not making the trip to Norman on Saturday because of what was described as a team issue. Lawrence, a transfer from St. John’s, averages 2.8 minutes per game.